Blue and yellow like the beach

Today it was another fancy dress day at nursery and the theme was 'Blue and yellow like the beach'. The blue linen trouses are the ones I made a few weeks ago so all I had to do was a peasant top from some leftover fabric I had in my stash and a lei to finish it off. :o)

Pattern:
Modified Butterick 3045. I didn't have any instructions for the lei...

Material:
Leftover yellow cotton fabric from my stash. The lei is made of 3 buqets of flowers from the pound-shop that I ripped apart and then put on an elastic band with peices of plastic straw in between.

Next time:
Let's wait and see what the theme is next time...

Purple hat (very small...)

Last night I finally made this hat that I had cut out several weeks ago. It was fun making it and much easier than I thought it would be. BUT.... it is too small for little F!! Maybe it will fit cousin F..?

Pattern:
Free download from Ottobre, but without the flower. For some reason I went for the smallest size 50.

Material:
Cotton fabric.

Next time:
Measure little Fs head before making the hat... :o)

Stripes and dots

I made this to match with the green linen trousers in the previous post but when I tried them on little F it looked way too green so I think they will have to be worn separately.

I love the fabrics and it was fun matching the stripes and the dots!!

Pattern:
Modified Butterick 3045

Material:
Cotton fabric bought in Australia.

Next time:
Should probably not make more tops like this for this summer... ;o)

2 linen trousers

After a few attempts I think I have finally got a pattern that fits little F perfectly!! First I made one pair of white linen trousers but they were too low in the back and too high in the front so I made another white pair. This time the result was a bit better but still needed some tweaking. The result is what you see here. I am very pleased with the way the waistband is done. It makes it very comfortable for little F to wear and it looks nice too!

I have used a twin needle (for the first time!!) for the hems which I think gave a very nice finish.

Pattern:
My own.

Material:
Linen for the trousers and stretch jersey for the waistband. The stretch jersey is 'wrapped' around a 3cm wide elastic band.

Next time:
BUY BETTER QUALITY THREAD!!!! It kept breaking all the time and I had to re-thread the overlocker over and over again... :o(

Little horses

This time I made the top a little bit longer and the sleeves a little bit longer. I think the sleeves are probably a little bit too long though... We will see what it looks like on when Little F wears it.

Pattern:
Modified Butterick 3045

Material:
Cotton fabric bought in Sweden.

Next time:
Probably make the sleeves a bit shorter.

White leggings

To make these took hardly any time at all. Only a few seams and elastics in the waist. BUT... then I decided to try the Cover Hem on my overlocker. Took ages to set it up and in the end I realised that you have to sew from the right side of the fabric and 'guess' where the fabric is on the back. Not convinced I like this...

Pattern:
'Lelle' Leggings, Ottobre 06/2008. I followed ATT SY EN GECKO's tips on how to add the elastics.

Material:
Cotton fabric bought in Australia and 41 cm elastics in waist (1,5 cm wide).

Next time:
Make them a little bit tighter and 8 cm shorter. The waist is a bit high so enough fabric there to use a wider elastics next time. I will also try using my twin needle instead of the cover hem and see how that goes. I know that is how my sister does it and I think it looks great!

Little F on her way to nursery

Seems like summer has finally arrived and I realise that little F doesn't have enough clothes that are cool enough for this heat!! So last night I had a look in my stash and found this fabric. I decided to make another peasant style top. I made a channel with thin elastics thru it in the neck. So far the best result compared to the other versions I have tried.

For the first time (EVER) everything went well. No thread breaking, no running out of thread in the middle of a seam, no jumping stitches, NO NEED TO UNPICK!!! Very pleased!

Pattern:
Modified Butterick 3045

Material:
Cotton fabric bought in Australia.

Next time:
Make it a little bit longer and make the sleeves a little bit longer. Perhaps try using bias tape at the bottom and on the sleeves.

Table cloth turned into summer dress

If any of you Swedish readers of this blog recognises the fabric, it is possible you might have seen it in your kitchen. The fabric is a table cloth that I bought in Hemtex last time I went to Sweden for a visit!!

I was really struggling with the bias tape on this one. Had to unpick and re-do several times. First I tried with elastics with terrible result, so the final version has got ruffle without elastics. My bias binder was not working very well with so much fabric so I had to unpick again and do it the old fashioned way. Anyway, all well that ends well!

Pattern:
Modified Butterick 3045

Material:
Cotton table cloth from Hemtex and home made bias tape.

Next time:
Do the neck in a different way. Doesn't look very good when looking close at it on this one...

Disaster...!!!

I think my overlocker is broken... or maybe I am doing something wrong?? I have only had this wonderful machine for a few months and so far it has been very good to me. Until now...

It works for a few inches if I only have a single layer of fabric and then the thread breaks. If I put 2 or 3 layers (of normal weight cotton) it breaks after an inch or so, and it also skips stitches.

Here are some points that might be useful:

1. I am using the same thread as I have used in the past (it was supplied to me together with the machine)
2. I have replaced the needle
3. I have re-threaded the machine (more than once!)
   
4. I am using the same type of seam as before
5. I have tried changing the tension on the various threads

So far no luck. All ideas of what to try next are welcome. :o(

Update:
I spoke to Sewing Machines Direct and explained my problem. They were very helpful and sent me 4 cones of good quality thread (I had been using the thread that was included when I bought the machine). They thread arrived the day after I spoke to them and now my machine is back to normal!!! Sooooo happy!!

The Baker

Day two of costumes as nursery. Today I have made it a bit easy for myself... Just made an apron and bought a minirolling pin. Little F already had a chef's hat. Like I said - easy!

Pattern:
My own. Two squares with the corners cut off. Sew them together leaving an opening to turn it right side out. Fold in the cut off corners to make channel for bias tape. Top stitch all around. Done!

Material:
White cotton that I also made the bias tape from.

Next time:
If there is a next time I will probably do it the same way.

Little Red Riding Hood

Little F's nursery is having 2 days this week when the children should be dressing up as a character from a fairytale or a nursery rhyme. First costume I decided to do (suggested by H) is Little Red Riding Hood. Probably not the most unusual choice but I thought it could be a good start on a costume wardrobe and it would be easy for F to put it on and take it off herself (soon maybe...).

It all went well until I was going to add the bias tape to attach the hood to the cape. The fabrics were too thick for my beloved bias binder and it did not come out very well. I removed the bias tape and just overlocked the layers together instead.

The skirt is made from a rectangular piece of fabric with loads of darts at the top to make it less bulky and with apron sewn onto it. The waist has got a channel with wide elastics inside to make it easy to pull on and off for little F.

Pattern:
The instructions for the cape and the hood came from Martha Stewart, but they were both modified and made smaller. For the skirt with apron I didn't have a pattern.

Material:
Thanks to Mannagryn's tips on Kånkarong's blog I found 'Wimbledon Sewing Centre' in Tooting Bec. I went there on the weekend and bought a red 'velvet' type material for the outer, red poly cotton for lining and skirt. I had some white cotton for the apron in my stash. I made the bias tape from the red poly cotton.

Next time:
Make one cape with hood in outer fabric and one cape with hood in lining then sew them together leaving gap to turn them right side out. Also put the ties in between the layers before sewing them together.

Leave hood the size specified in the instructions. It is a bit too small after my amendments...

Kleenex case

I made this Kleenex case a while back but have not got round to uploading the photograph until now. I made one that was too short first and had to make another one that I measured a bit better.

Pattern:
A combination of different tutorials and photographs I have seen online.

Material:
Blue and white fabric from IKEA and an old, white sheet for lining.

Next time:
Make sure the size is correct before you sew the corners. Measure against a pack of Kleenex.

It has arrived!!!!

A few weeks ago I ordered an old issue of Ottobre and now it is here!!! I went for the Winter 6/2008 issue because it had so many nice patterns that I want to try.

My scanner is not very cooperative at the moment so I have borrowed some photos from the Ottobre website.

One item that I would like to make for little F is the coat pictured below. Should (hopefully!!) be able to do that before summer is over...

♥ Sooooo happy!!! ♥

Another dummy holder

Pattern:
This time I left the opening for turning the band right side out on the long side instead of at the ends. Much better result! I also decided to add a button both ends so I don't have to use one of my precious clips every time, instead I just attach the clip to the band the same way as the dummy is attached. This decision was made after I cut the fabric so the band is a bit on the short side... I also wasn't able to pull the band thru the clip because of the button so I had to bend the clip a bit to get it thru.

Material:
Fabric from IKEA, clip bought on ebay and snap buttons from my 'stash'.

Next time:
Swap they way I attach the buttons on the clip side.

Oh.... my.... god...!!!

I have just tried my bias binder. IT IS SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!! Except my overlocker and sewing machine this is the most useful tool I have ever bought. It is so easy to use and the result is perfect. Just position the bias tape in the bias binder, position the fabric as well and off you go!! All done in one step. AMAZING!!